Saturday, July 5, 2008

More rhetoric from the Orlando Sentinel...


I'll give the Orlando Sentinel newspaper credit for this, they produce some entertaining drivel on their college sports blog. First it was Mr. Tim Stephens explaining to us how the SEC will takeover college football, and then the world.

Now I come across another story describing the obvious prospect of an SEC television network. I found a few things interesting about the latest from the zealots down south...

The SEC is a league that is often guided by tradition. For example, the league has often refused to abandon the Sugar Bowl despite a slew of media relations disasters and (of course) the aging of the Louisiana Superdome. Were it not for the SEC, the Sugar Bowl would be out of the BCS already.

I find the notion that the SEC sticks with the Sugar Bowl out of tradition and yet considers the Rose Bowl an "abomination and all that is wrong with college football" a tad hypocritical. I also find it a bit ridiculous that this dude (Alan Schmadtke) thinks the Sugar Bowl is somehow in danger of being cast aside? Huh?

Sweet Al throws in some subtle cheap shots also...

To compare the Big Ten Network with a potential SEC Network, the Big Ten has one advantage: basketball. Midwest fans flock to Big Ten games on TV during hoops season. The SEC’s advantage: baseball. The SEC is always one of college baseball’s best conferences; the Big Ten, not so much.

So let me just make sure I understand this, you're having a discussion about college sports television networks and you use this as a way to call Big Ten baseball lame? That's a nice reach. I'm impressed. By the way college baseball isn't played in domes. Oklahoma ('94) is the only non-coastal university to win the CWS since 1990 . We all get it, college baseball is dominated by warm weather schools.

He also threw in some comments about the popularity of college basketball earlier in the post but clearly superiority in college baseball takes precedent. There's a reason CBS paid billions for the NCAA basketball tourney and you're scarcely aware of the CWS on ESPN.

Is it just me or does it always come back to the SEC and the Big Ten? Am I wrong? If I'm not, why is that exactly?

Anyway the last noteworthy quote I will provide is the following...

Back when I was young and stupid -- not so long ago, actually -- I believed college football would be better off (or at least more entertaining, dramatically speaking) if Notre Dame’s program went into the tank. Having watched it happen, now I believe the opposite. Although I fundamentally oppose some of the concessions and automatic qualifiers the BCS has given Notre Dame, the sport is better off when the Irish are winning.

I couldn't agree more. While nothing is more gratifying then seeing Notre Dame lose to the likes of Navy, you can't have that for very long. As this windbag states, college football is better when ND is in the mix. You've got to have a "bad guy". Fortunately, the SEC has filled that void while Notre Dame has been in the shitter. I'm guessing the Irish will resume their position in the general hierarchy sooner rather then later.

Hopefully I am in the only one sensitive enough to be annoyed by this garbage.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Nail on the head, Matthew.

Matthew said...

That's Darren McFadden and his Little Rock SUV in the picture by the way.

Naplesbuckeye said...

That is nothing....you should of seen the Escalade that he was driving BEFORE the bowl game courtesy of his agent...Mike Conley Sr.